Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

What was the real story of Margaret? She was the first wife of Steven, who Jenny has just married and she's a mystery. Jenny has had a tough life- she's been living more or less hand to mouth since her parents died. She met Steven when she worked at a storage center (some fun scenes there) and despite the fact that he's 20 years older and frankly, a little creepy. she marries him. Some of this might seem familiar but Masters has added a twist at the end (I know, I know but it's not a long book so keep reading!). Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Jennifer has had a hard life and the first thing the reader learns is that she really feels sorry for herself. Her parents divorced, went their separate ways and left her on her own. She ended up living on the streets for a while. When the story starts she's renting a bedroom in a young couples home and quitting her nursing home job with no idea what she'll do next. She lands a cushy job as a clerk/receptionist at a storage place where she watches people come and go on the black and white monitors. One mysterious customer catches her eye and she makes an effort to get acquainted. After a brief courtship, he proposes, and she jumps at the chance, even though she still hasn't met any of his family or his friends. The story held my attention throughout, even though I didn't like Jennifer very much. The most frightening aspect of Subsequent Wife was that the situation Jennifer found herself in was so plausible, so easy to think it could happen to anyone.

I received an advance copy of this and was drawn to the premise, as well as to the narrator, Jennifer. She’s had an especially difficult time in her young life when we first meet her. Her family fell apart when she was a teenager, and her parents and brother are still estranged and uninterested. She was homeless for a time, and her disappointing performance in school meant that she could not pursue college and the kinds of jobs that grads have. When the novel begins, she has just unthinkingly quit her job in a nursing home and needs to find another one quickly to continue to afford her meager one room rental. She happens on a job in a self-storage facility, and life seems to be looking up.
She meets Steven at work, where he rents a unit for his dead wife’s belongings. He is sad and quirky, but he shows interest in Jenny and treats her far better than her past string of terrible boyfriends. As their relationship builds, Jenny is beset by questions about Steven and his past, yet she is willing overlook them because she hopes he can give her a better life. Will she learn the answers to all her doubts before it’s too late?
Recommended

Since these female powered thrillers have become all the rage, there have been every possible twist and variation on this title…The Other Wife, The Next Wife, The Last Wife, etc. etc…hence (presumably) this weirdly precise clunker…who says Subsequent when it comes to spousal descriptions, anyway?
Well, actually the male lead in this book possibly might, the oddly precise fellow that he is. But then again, desperation is a terrible adviser and Jennifer (Jenny) Lomax is desperate. She’s had a rough go of it thus far, living on the streets at its nadir, after being chucked out by her uncaring parents upon their splitting up. She never made it to college…because money. She rents a tiny space from a young family, who only use her to make the mortgage, making that living situation all kinds of weird and unhomey…because money. The two friends she had are too busy with their own lives. Jenny is constantly lonely and worried about her financial security and future.
But she did finally land a decent job after years of slogging away for minimum wage doing sh*t work, literally. Now Jenny helps operate a busy storage facility, makes ok wages and gets to meet lots of people. And as fate would have it, one of them turns out to be a quiet, reserved 40 year old widower, who initially becomes the objection of jenny’s obsession and later a somewhat reluctant affection. Is he the romantic lead of her dreams? No, not at all. But he embodies a promise of safety and security that Jenny finds positively irresistible enough to overlook all sorts of red flags. Of which there are many. No race car would have proceeded around the track with flags that red being waved that aggressively but Jenny preservers with that desperate, stubborn naivete of youth. Reader, she marries the creep. And, subsequently, (just had to throw that in) gets into a lot of doodoo for her choices.
So that’s the novel. It isn’t hugely original, in fact for the overwhelming majority of it, it reads like a modern retelling of Rebecca…the differences only come in toward the end and to author’s credit they are significant enough to make this into its own (albeit heavily Rebecca inspired) story. The narrative speeds along at a nice clip, although at times its repetitive, especially in reinstating Jenny’s financial and emotional woes. And Jenny, for all her youth, is a likeable enough of a character to make watching her steady careening overboard compelling enough of a read. Just about. Nothing special here, but perfectly decent with a few entertaining plot twists and a doozy of an ending, which is a small accomplishment in and of itself. Fans of the wrong man she married type of stories should be pleased. Thanks Netgalley.

Complex Characters, Compelling Narrative…
Dark, disturbing and chilling suspense which hooks in the reader from the first page and keeps hold to the last. Well drawn, credible and complex character studies abound coupled with a riveting and compelling narrative. A tense and satisfying read.

From the prolific and excellent writer of the Joanna Piercy, Martha Gunn and Clare Roget series comes a standalone thriller. The tone is different from other psychological suspense titles, but it still builds in the second half to a creepy and satisfying conclusion. With thanks to the author, publisher and Net Galley for the opportunity to read an early copy.

A riveting and highly suspenseful psychological thriller centered around the bleak life of Jennifer Lomax, an unloved and uncared for young woman who is employed at a storage facility and her emotional involvement and subsequent marriage to a much older client, an evasive and rather sinister man. Tautly written and fiendisly plotted, this slow burning story of unfulfilled yearnings and creeping madness kept me on tenterhooks from start to finish. Ms. Masters is just brilliant and she very cleverly knows how to hook her reader's attention from the beginning of her fictional journey by adroitly and ferociously ensnaring his or hers senses through a powerful emotional wringer. Blessed with a cast of unforgettable characters (I just simply loved Jennifer's stark and unflattering portraits of the various clients coming in and out of the storage facility) this powerful story overwhelmed me for a few hours and left me utterly gobsmacked by the end.
A menacing and creepy tale that deserves to be enjoyed without any moderation👍👍

Many thanks to Netgalley and Canongate/Severn for this terrific ARC

Okay, I know authors hate it when readers complain about unlikable characters. But this main character isn’t just unlikable – she’s loathsome! She’s manipulative, a whiner, a really bad friend, and whenever a guy isn’t into her, she complains that he may be a ‘closet gay’ – her words, not mine.

I mean I cannot like this woman.

Yet, I kept reading. I just couldn’t look away. I was appalled at how bad a friends she was. I was appalled by her complete lack of any logical decision making. I couldn’t figure out how she could do online dating, but couldn’t do a web search to find out about this guy.

I was intrigued by our Mr. Rochester like brooding weirdo dude. And I had no clue what he was actually hiding.

I read it. I finished it. I was intrigued by it. But I spent so very much time completely loathing our main character, that I never truly enjoyed it.

3 stars.

ARC via Net Galley

Jennifer has had a difficult life since her parents went their separate ways and left her to fend for herself. When money ran out she was forced to live on the streets, trying to stay at school – her teacher said she would go to University, but it was not to be. Now at 21 she is working in a care home and suffers all the indignities of being spat at, sworn at and the final indignity delivered as she wiped one of the old ladies bottom. She quit.

Now she finds herself out of work, no money to speak of – on minimum wage – living in the spare bedroom of a couple who need the £300 a month to help pay their mortgage. A cold, loveless life. She doesn’t want to be back on the streets again. Then her luck turns, she stumbles upon a company that rents out storage lockers and she gets on with the owners and lands herself a job.

Jennifer is clever, and a hard worker – the only problem with this job is that eventually she gets a bit bored and a bit lonely. Her contact with their customers is fairly limited but she discovers some regulars and their reasons for renting. All very interesting.

She only wants someone to love her, care for her and provide a nice home and then she meets one of the customers, a bit older (40ish) and although she doesn’t believe he is the ‘one’ – she gives it a go and encourages a friendship with him. He is polite and well-turned out. And reader she married him.

What a really fascinating, exciting book. Jennifer is a brilliant character, full of uncertainty and self-doubt and because of this, perhaps, she dismisses all the signs that perhaps not all is well whilst I was highly attuned to her predicament.

Highly recommended.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for providing an ARC via my Kindle in return for an honest review.

After growing up in an unstable home and parents who seem to have divorced their daughter as well as each other, Jennifer Lomax craves stability. Thinking she may have found not only stability but true love as well, she marries widower Steven Taverner, only to find out that Steven is not who he seems to be.

Thank you Netgalley and Canongate/Severn House for the eARC.
Jennifer, twenty-one, works at a care home for the elderly. She's had a tough life; uncaring parents, lived on the streets for a while and the final straw is when one of the patients insults her deeply ... she quits her job. With rent to pay, no job and no family to fall back.on, she's thrilled to be offered a job manning the office of locker company. There she meets an older man who rents a locker and seems well-to-do, shy and polite. He's a widower, a bit reticent as far as his private life is concerned, but after all the losers she's dated, she's delighted when he finally proposes. Her dream come true: a family, a home and no more poverty. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as that...
I did feel sorry for her at times, but as for her decisions! My goodness, she didn't heed all the signs thrown her way
This was a terrific book, with me holding my breath and shaking my head many times, at the same time not able to put it down. As for the ending, whoa...
Highly recommended!

Jennifer Lomax is only twenty one, but she’s already been educated in the school of hard knocks, so when she meets older, wealthier Steven Tarverner, she leaps at his offer of marriage. She wants to believe she’s found her happy ever after, the man who will make all her dreams come true. The only fly in the ointment is Stephen’s dead wife, Margaret. He refuses to discuss her, so Jennifer makes it her business to find out what really happened to her predecessor, something she will live to regret